"Nation's Forum" was a record label that produced recordings of the voices of prominent Americans from 1918-1920. The label was started by St. Louis attorney Guy Golterman for the purpose of making, "permanent records of great speeches and messages in Congress and elsewhere, so that posterity may listen to the voices of the war leaders of 1918." In many cases, these are the only voice recordings of the participant.
According to the Library of Congress, there were two distinct sets of recordings. The 1918 series were all 10" recordings and was apparently distributed only to political organizations and other groups. Many of these records did not have labels. The only one made available to the public was the recording of General Pershing (with James W. Gerard on the reverse). This series was mostly devoted to WWI topics. The exact number of these recordings is unknown.
The second series (1919-1920) focused mainly on post-war issues and the 1920 election. This series is numbered 1-26, but also contains 3 non-numbered recordings by Eamonn DeValera, who led the fight to establish the Republic of Ireland.
All of the Nation's Forum were recorded in the studio with no audience present, for the purpose of recreating an important public speech. |